It seems the people have a voice after all. it took them long enough but i'm glad the powers that be finally did the right thing. My only hope is that Ms. Info didn't suffer the same punishment as her colleagues, since all she did was protest the airing (although her bio on the hot97 site has been pulled-- a bad sign). hiphopmusic.com's take. some excerpts from the Reuters story, as seen on cnn.com

Radio station pulls show over tsunami slur

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The entire staff of the New York radio show "Miss Jones in the Morning" was taken off the air on Wednesday after broadcasting a song that ridiculed victims of the tsunami in South Asia, the radio station said.

Jones and her team were suspended indefinitely, according to publicist Lizzie Grubman, who declined to say whether Jones would feature in another show at a later date.

"What happened is morally and socially indefensible," said Rick Cummings, president of Emmis Radio. The station is owned by Emmis Communications Corp.

"All involved, myself included, are ashamed and deeply sorry. I know the members of the morning show are truly contrite. They know their actions here are inexcusable," Cummings said in a statement. full story

In related news, the Chinese American rapper Jin has put together a response (mp3) of his own to the song.

Read for yourself what Todd Lynn, the same guy who said he was "gonna shoot some asians," had to say (aim convo courtesy of hiphopmusic.com). If phone transcriptions are more your style check out the scoop from trickology.com. "out of context" my @#$. According to Hashim all he needs is a blog.

NYC's Hot 97 played an offensive, unfunny parody known as the "Tsunami song" over a four day period last past week or so. I heard about it not long after it happened but only just recently got a chance to listen to it for myself. During one airing, Miss Info objected to the airing, only to be lambasted by her co-hosts, Miss Jones and Todd Lynn. At one point, Jones replied, "I know you feel you're superior because you're Asian, but you're not." Don't believe me? Listen to a clip (mp3) from the Jan 21 morning show. If you listen closely you will hear one of the djs Lynn say that he's gonna "start shooting asians" at 3:37 in the recording.

There was a time, when the sun was shining brightSo I went down to the beach to catch me a tanThen the next thing I knewA wave 20 feet high came and washed your country awayAnd all at once, you can hear the screaming chinks.And no one was safe from the wave.There was africans drowning, little chinaman swept awayYou can heard god laughing, swim you b*tches swim.

So now you're screwed, it's the the tsunami,You better run and kiss your ass awake, go find your mommyI just saw her float by, a tree right through her head.And now your children will be sold in child slavery.

(imitating michael jackson)'Oh no, please not the kids. I'll pay for all the kids.all the little Indonesian kid, the little Asian kids, the chinese kids.the black, oh well, not the Black kids.the White kids, the Puerto Rican kids.I love them all. I'll pay for everything.I promise I won't touch them

cute. i may not be asian but you shouldn't have to be to be outraged. tell me someone could pen a similar song about african-americans, and "shooting all the niggers" and get away with the pitiful apologies [1][2] the DJs/radio station have issued. they'd have the NAACP and other major organizations all over them. is this really 2005?! i never really cared for hot 97 when i lived in the city, but you certainly couldn't pay me enough to listen to it now, if this is the sort of crap they're gonna allow on the air. Where is the FCC when you really need it? oh, that's right, they're too busy scaring networks into censoring cartoon nude bottoms.

More from hiphopmusic.com and the NY Post. the hiphopmusic.comlink has a ton of email addresses and other info if you wish to express your opinion in a way that might actually make a difference. while there are two online petitions going ([1][2]) it seems to me that the first step ought to be finding a new station to listen to.

(Todd & Penguin, by David Wright. click the strip to see the full size version of the comic)

I haven't mentioned this strip before but I've been reading it for a couple months now and recently got a GREAT review by Eric Burns. It's all about a guy and his pet penguin. Sounds strange, I know, but there's something about David Wright's characters that just draws you in and keeps you coming back for more. Even better, there's multiple convenient ways to catch the strip, which comes out 3 times per week. Check out his site for more info! Still not convinced? Like I told you before, read the review!